Patients in Ulster County who need to be tested for the coronavirus won't have to go far. County officials partnered with Nuvance Health to open the county's first drive-up testing site Monday morning at Tech City in Kingston.

"The first day, we processed over 84 tests, which is a record for Nuvance and any of their sites," said Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan. "And the goal is to get up to over 200, near 250 a day."

The site will significantly add to testing capacity and streamline the process.

"The nurses come up to the car, we have one that's a helper [and] they hold the viral media; the other nurse will [have] the patient roll down their window, and through the window, they collect the swab," said Claudine Fasse, vice president of operations at Nuvance Health.

Officials stress that those that want to be tested need to have a prescription from their doctor before they visit the testing site.

"We don't want to have a crowd, that's less safe for everybody. So this way, we can control it and get through as many people as we can and do it safely," Ryan said.

After receiving a prescription from a doctor, patients will then be directed to make an appointment to go to the site. The entire experience is expected to take up to 5 minutes from registration to the administration of the test.

"They can call our appointment line, set up an appointment, and that gets them in the queue," Fasse said. "We will take anyone that does come, and has an order but does not have an appointment; we won't turn anyone away for that reason."

Officials say the more positive cases that are found, the better they can adjust their response.

"Over time, the better testing picture we get, then we can have more tailored; hey, not everybody needs to stay home," Ryan said. "I think that's where we're hoping to get to over the next few weeks is rather than a blanket 'everybody stay put.' We can then better assess who's where. Try to slowly get back to normal here."

The testing site is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. After being tested, residents should drive home and plan to self-quarantine for up to 14 days.

For more information on the testing site, call the Ulster County COVID-19 Hotline at (845) 443-8888.